TALLINN - Finland's Labor Ministry announced that in May it was launching a Web site where foreign workers can get information on laws, regulations and collective bargaining. According to Olli Sorainen, a ministry official, the portal will be in Finnish, Estonian, Russian and English and also contain information about local work customs and culture.
"The idea to set up such a Web site arose a year ago after the first indications that workers from Estonia and other countries were treated badly on the labor market," he said.
Of the approximately 300 collective agreements concluded in Finland, only those concluded by trade union associations will be posted on the site.
Finland is set to open its labor market to workers from new member states of the European Union on May 1.
In a separate development, Finland's Justice Ministry is reportedly toughening legislation on imposing business bans in order to prevent persons who have been prohibited from doing business in Finland from continuing in Estonia.
Presently a business ban imposed in Finland only bars a person from operating only in his home country but does not prevent him from doing business abroad. Persons under the ban are allegedly using Estonia-registered companies as buffers to continue doing business in Finland, Finnish media reported last week.
Data by the Finnish Interior Ministry show that at least 16 persons banned from business in their home country hold responsible positions in companies registered in Estonia.
To nip this trend in the bud, Finnish authorities intend to improve information exchanges with Estonian colleagues for information about imposed business bans on a timely basis.
The proposed amendment would enable officials to exchange information via electronic channels. According to Kauppalehti, a daily paper, the Justice Ministry intends to hand the corresponding bill to Parliament before summer recess.
At the turn of the year there were 646 persons in the Finnish register on whom a business ban had been imposed.
According to Finland's leading daily Helsingin Sanomat, the Estonian commercial register includes around 2,850 companies with Finnish owners or partners.
